This invention relates to a mineral mining installation, and in particular to an installation for winning material in the "stable-hole" region at the end of a longwall face.
Winning of coal from a longwall face adjoining a roadway or gallery has always been difficult, since the known type of coal plough, which is guided on a longwall conveyor, can only remove coal between the two end drive stations of the conveyor. The portions of the longwall face that accommodate the drive stations (that is to say the so-called "stable-hole" regions) must, therefore, either be won by hand or by auxiliary winning machines. Unfortunately, known auxiliary winning machines are both costly and bulky.
As an alternative to providing auxiliary winning machines for winning the "stable-hole" regions, the longwall conveyor can be extended into the access roads at the two ends of the longwall face, so that the plough can win coal along the entire length of the longwall face. The disadvantage of this arrangement is that the heavy and bulky drive units for the plough and the conveyor are accommodated in the access roads themselves, which is obviously undesirable.
The aim of the invention is to produce a mineral mining installation incorporating a comparatively simple and light auxiliary winning machine for winning material in a "stable-hole" region.